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I am new to the Caird Library team, with responsibility for the journal collection, which comprises in excess of 1200 titles, including 125 current subscriptions. The latest editions are on access, displayed in the Reading Room. In order to help readers access the contents of our more specialist journals, we…

One of the amazing things about working in the archives of the National Maritime Museum is that every once in a while you find something fantastically engrossing. Most recently an entry in the journal kept during the Cook’s first voyage (JOD/19) caught my eye, and it concerns him and his…

March’s Item of the month has just been posted. Gareth take s a look at An account of the Revd John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer-Royal, compiled from his own manuscripts, and other authentic documents, never before published. Flamstead was Astronomer Royal from 1675-1719 (nearly 45 years!). The account was written…

Former residence of Queen Victoria, Osborne House became a Royal Navy officer training college in 1901, remaining open until 1921. Among the former students were Edward VIII and George VI. The NMM holds various bound volumes of the Osborne magazine. This journal served the Osborne college while the Britannia Royal…

February’s Item of the Month has just been published. Penny take s a look at ‘Camp Magazine’, produced by prisoners of war from the Royal Naval Division interned in Groningen (Holland) between 1914 and 1918. Camp Magazine, according to its creators, was produced to reflect camp life at Groningen and…

In the Caird Library Manuscript collections is a compilation of naval records containing extracts made by Sir Robert Cotton from original records from the time of King John to Elizabeth I [PLA/2]. It is perhaps little known that aside from amassing the ‘most important collection of manuscripts ever assembled in…

‘The loss of the Earl of Abergavenny, East-Indiaman: a poem with notes’ Recently I came across to a very moving volume while cataloguing the rare fiction collection of the Caird Library. The book is entitled ‘The loss of the Earl of Abergavenny, East-Indiaman: a poem with notes’ (Item ID: PBH6656)…

On Wednesday 16 December 1914, the German Navy raided the coastal towns of Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby. Rear Admiral Franz Von Hipper, commander of the German battleship squadron, devised a plan to enact the bombardment whilst his superior, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, stationed the ships of the entire German High…

Following the Act for Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807, the Royal Navy was used to supress the Atlantic slave trade. British naval squadrons were set up to patrol the coast of West Africa and the Caribbean looking for illegal slavers. Here at the National Maritime Museum, we have…